Smooth Groove Productions Blog: Jazz in The Georgian, July 12, 2013

On Friday, July 12, 2013 my good friend John Hansen was back in the house for Jazz in The Georgian at the fabulous The Fairmont Olympic Hotel in the heart of downtown Seattle. This session was an especially on night. We played lots of great tunes in which the energy was high and the feel was swinging hard. John is the hardest swinging bop jazz pianist in town.

I've been videotaping these gigs in The Georgian for over a year now and posting select videos on my YouTube channel. The Sansung W300 pocket camcorder has been the video capturing device along with my Boss BR600 digital 8-track recorder for audio capture. In the editing process I sync the video minus the camcorder sound with the better recording of the digital recorder, which has good results. Normally per gig, I'll get one or two good takes of songs that are worthy of making into a video and posting up on YouTube. My goal is to get just one decent video out of the more than two hours of video footage from the gig. This evening was one of those nights that felt great and high musicality was abundant. Out of the eighteen tunes we played on this four-hour gig, almost everything we played was really on. I made five videos but I'm just posting four for now. And, there were more songs that could have made the cut to become a video. It was a total blast to play with John. Nights like these remind and ground me to as what this musical career of playing gigs is all about. Of course it's also essential to get paid for what we do as professionals. Certain nights come together musically more so than others and this was one of those nights. I hope you enjoy these selections.

The first tune of the evening is called Alone Together. This set the tone for the rest of the evening.

Alone Together

Come Rain Or Come Shine is a really great fun standard to play.

Come Rain Or Come Shine

Here's a blues tune by the late great bebop pianist Bud Powell called Dance Of The Infidels.

Dance Of The Infidels

This song was the last one we played for the evening. It didn't get captured on video but the audio recording of John's blazing solo was too good not to share. This is Herbie Hancock's One Finger Snap.

One Finger Snap

John Hansen will be back for more hard bop jazz playing in August. Stay tuned for scheduling updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Please visit our YouTube channel to see and hear highlights of Jazz in The Georgian, and Smooth Groove Productions special events.

Jazz in The Georgian every Friday and Saturday nights, 6pm-10pm at The Fairmont Olympic Hotel, 411 University Street, Seattle, Washington 98101, 206-621-7889.